02-01-17 Community Relations - Laserfiche WebLink

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by the workers, principled in the understanding of`One member, one vote.' This means that every person that works there is only able to own one share of stock. The CEO down to the cashier, all own the same amount of stock and decision power. There has been a lot of research to document the benefits of employee-owned companies. Folks that work in employee-owned companies are benefitting economically. When employees think like owners, that has an impact on productivity, stability and profitability. Ms. Bannano then referenced the upcoming Baby Boomer retirement wave. Having entered the first part of the wave, there are an estimated 150,000—300,000 businesses currently owned by Baby Boomers that, within the next fifteen(15) years, will be up for sale. Many of these business owners do not have a succession plan in place. This is an opportunity to encourage a transition to employee-ownership models. Midwest Orthotics is a South Bend example of an ESOP structure. She then went on to describe her experience with worker cooperatives in Cleveland and how that project came together. It was a multi-stakeholder community wealth building initiative and one of the most nationally visible examples of this concept. Cleveland, like South Bend,has experienced a lot of disinvestment over time. There is an area called the Greater University Circle Area in Cleveland where approximately fifty thousand (50,000)residents are living at or below the poverty line. There is a high vacancy rate, high school drop-out rate, unemployment rate, most all of which are indicators for poverty. Nearby this area is the University Circle Area, and it is one of the most prosperous areas of Cleveland because that is where the largest anchor institutions are located. Anchor institutions is a term used to describe large, usually non-profit, institutions that aren't going away. For example in South Bend,that might be Notre Dame or IU. Also since de-industrialization,these institutions tend to be the greatest economic engines for the community. However when looking at a map, it seems as though the economic benefits or prosperity are not so much spreading to the immediately surrounding neighborhoods. This was identified as a key problem, but also an opportunity to leverage assets to help those struggling communities. These institutions,partnering with the city government, the community foundation created a package of comprehensive investments in infrastructure, transportation, and housing. One of the interesting projects that came out of that was the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative. The anchor institutions in Cleveland thought about how they could do more local and inclusive hiring. They set up programs in workforce development and pipeline recruitment to attract and recruit folks from the surrounding communities so they weren't just hiring people from the suburbs. By looking at the supply chain of the anchor institutions, they found business development opportunities to create companies in the local community that can hire traditionally marginalized persons from within that local community. The Cleveland Foundation started the initial conversations with the anchor institutions. For example the two (2)hospitals,University Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic, identified that they produce a lot of laundry and linen, and created the Evergreen Cooperative as an industrial laundry facility. Philanthropy by way of$6 million was set in a revolving loan fund by the Cleveland Foundation to start the process. Ms. Bonnano then went on to share the statistics of the impacts and early outcomes of the project in Cleveland. She revealed the recent opportunity for the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry employees to vote on renewing the contract of their managing Chief Executive Officer. Antonius Northern, 234 Rue Flambeau, asked the presenter,Has a cooperative initiative ever addressed a food scarcity issue or poverty issue? 4